Protests over surveillance as US marks Independence Day

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1 year 9 months ago, AFP Videos

SHOTLIST:
WASHINGTON, 4 JULY, 2013
SOURCE: AFPTV
- VAR of protest against NSA surveillance programs leaked by Edward Snowden
SOUNDBITE 1 Craig Aaron (man), president and CEO of "Free Press" (English, 26 sec):
"You know the Founding Fathers were revolutionaries and certainly they would not want unwarranted searches and seizures which is what's going on. They would not want to see the attack on journalism and the free press that's happening. But what they would like to see is a lot of people out here exercizing their constitutional rights to speak out, to be heard and to oppose what's happening right now in terms of spying and surveillance."
SOUNDBITE 2 Voxpop (English, 21 sec):
"I felt the most appropriate way to celebrate the 4th of July, the founding of our Nation, would be to actually take... what out founding fathers fought for and take it seriously, follow these documents that they wrote. Right now our government isn't doing that, they're breaking almost every single right in our Bill of Rights, and if I don't do something about it, who will?."
SOUNDBITE 3 Voxpop (English, 20 sec):
"The American people weren't able to have a conversation about the things that our government is doing in terms of surveillance on our emails, our telephone calls and everything else until these leaks came out so I think it's really important that as Americans we come here today and come together and tell our government we don't appreciate this."
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AFP BACKGROUND TEXT:
US-security-intelligence-Snowden-EU-parliament
EU lawmakers demand 'immediate clarification' on US spying
STRASBOURG, France, July 4, 2013 (AFP) - The European Parliament on Thursday demanded "immediate clarification" from Washington on claims of US spying on EU offices and warned the espionage scandal could damage diplomatic ties.
In a resolution overwhelmingly adopted in the Strasbourg-based legislature, MEPs said the parliament "strongly condemns the spying on EU representations" and warned of its "potential impact on trans-Atlantic relations".
It called for "immediate clarification from the US authorities on the matter".
Lawmakers however rejected an amendment by left and far-left parliamentarians to call for the postponement of talks on a vast EU-US trade deal, which are due to start on Monday.
Another amendment was rejected calling for EU states to grant asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA) who revealed the widespread bugging of EU diplomatic missions and offices.
Despite initial calls from France for a delay in the trade talks, the EU said Wednesday they would go ahead as planned but run in tandem with working groups tasked with probing the extent of US spying.